The GDC Vault service has debuted both free and subscriber-only videos from October’s GDC Online event in Austin, Texas. Free-to-watch talks debuting include Brian Reynolds’ keynote on lessons from Zynga’s Frontierville, and Richard Bartle’s acclaimed talk on the history of the Multi-User Dungeon (MUD).

Following the successful developer and business event that ran in Texas earlier this month, organizers of the Game Developers Conference series of events are making specially recorded versions of the talks available — while also archiving all of the GDC Online content in video form for future use.

These new free talks debut alongside an update making available nearly 90 lecture videos from GDC Online for subscribers at the GDC Vault website. The site features video technology that allows users to simultaneously view a presenter’s slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

– In ‘Bears and Snakes! The Wild Frontier of Social Game Design’, Zynga’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds — formerly at Firaxis and Big Huge Games and notable for his work on titles like Civilization II — discussed the launch of Zynga’s game FrontierVille and work around melding social and traditional game design that went into it.

Reynolds’ introduction notes of the lecture: “We’ll look at key
features such as missions, ‘doobers’, and varmints and explore how they
take traditional social game models and make them more entertaining.
Well also look at the ways we took traditional social game interactions
and made them more social” for the title, which currently has over 30
million monthly unique users.

As Bartle, now a professor at the University Of Essex, explains of his inspirational talk: “Almost all today’s MMOs are direct descendents of MUD, yet few developers have played it. This talk, by one of MUD’s two co-authors, describes the thinking behind its design and corrects some of the commonly-held misconceptions about what it must have been like to play… The present can learn from the past; the good old days are yet to come.”

The free recordings available are a fraction of the content currently being flowed into the GDC Vault. The content repository has recently added several new features, and it’s now easier to navigate through the free section of the site, with video, audio and slides more clearly split with browsing and searching.

Full GDC Vault access, including synchronized video recordings for over 200 of GDC 2010’s sessions, 65 talks from GDC Europe, almost 90 GDC Online talks, and hundreds of historical video and audio recordings, is available to GDC 2010 All-Access Pass holders — as well as All-Access Pass holders for other GDC events during the year. Similar recording sessions are planned for December’s GDC China and next February’s GDC 2011 in San Francisco.

Individual Vault subscriptions not tied to All-Access passes have just launched in a limited-edition Beta invite process — those interested in signing up to be invited in on a first come, first served basis should sign up on the GDC Vault website.

In addition, game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available by contacting Suzanne Cunningham or viewing an online demonstration.